Well, sorry all for not writing more, but I've been on the trail for long stretches of time, and the Troutville/Daleville/Cloverdale I-81 interchange didn't really have much internet (wireless doesn't help when you haven't a computer to harness it!)

Since getting out of my wonderful recovery stay at the kind Brian Allgood and family's house, I had a couple of miserable days of hiking.  "Healthy" and "Backpacking Healthy" are two very very different things.  I finally got an appetite back enough to meet up with Tom and Nick (co-workers from REI) and have them entertain me and a fellow hiker with a wonderful burger cookout in Bland, VA (exciting town, right?).  I thought that was awesome (thanks Tom and Nick!). 

I got fully better, a few days later made it into Pearisburg, and ended up taking a full day off (zero-ing) in Pearisburg because I didn't really need to leave at 4pm when Virginia summer thunderstorms were just rolling in, and we were about to start hiking uphill onto the top of a ridge.  The next day I went out 21 miles about, and the next morning I was nauseous again.  Apparently a *lot* of hikers have been getting sick with these similar symptoms.  Well, it took me a couple days to start eating breakfasts and eating full lunches and snacks (dinners were always good for some reason).  I'm back to normal health again at least, so let's hope this is it.  Nausea and diarreah are terrible but tolerable.  Hiking on them is barely tolerable.

I've gone about 58 miles in the past 3 days, and I'm just exhausted.  I'm here at a cushy bed and breakfast where they hosted a free lunch, and I figured it would be good for me to take a little bit of time off.  Every afternoon the thunder starts booming in the clouds like there is 2pm free bowling every day in the summer.  The skies open up and pour down to varying strengths starting around 5pm to 9pm, some days you get in to shelter/camp before the storm, some days not -- sometimes it threatens all day and then does nearly nothing.

I'll try to write a themed article later, highlighting some specific topics maybe.  That's just about how things have been going for me so far.  ~809 miles in -- over a third of the miles; about 15 days shy of half the trip's length.  I'm getting a good handle on it, and my feet are staying in mostly great shape.  Take care and keep in touch!